Parents Name Child ‘Tesla’

by Christopher Freeburn | September 12, 2013 12:06 pm

[1]Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that one set of California parents may have named their offspring after a popular electric car make[2]r[3].

Apparently, a woman was overheard at the Pacific Palisades’ Palisades Recreation Center addressing her two-year old as “Tesla.” Representatives of Tesla Motors (TSLA[4]) noted that the child “might be the first” to carry the company’s name.

Of course, the child could have been named after Nikola Tesla, the famed Serbian-American inventor after which the electric car maker itself is named, but then … well, it is California after all.

As it happens Tesla Motors is facing a challenge to its name in China[5], where a local businessman trademarked the Tesla name in 2006, potentially complicating the company’s efforts to sell its vehicles there.